Let's go to....Texas & back to Milwaukee

Our drive to Texas from Tennessee was one long day.  We started early, but got stuck in traffic for a few hours because a semi-truck carrying chemicals was in an accident and caught on fire (no fatalities).  Both directions of the Interstate had to exit and take a parallel highway for a few miles.  Thankfully we didn't come across any other problems on our trip.

Finally, we made it to Texas y'all!

Samuel was so excited to finally be in Texas, where Grandpa & Grandma Wildauer live.  He didn't understand we still had a few hours to drive before we got to Grandpa and Grandma's house.

Liza likes to ride in style, with her legs up. 

(that's an apple she'd been working on for a while, eventually she ate it down to the core.)

Beautiful Texas sunset as we neared our destination.

Grandpa & Grandma have an awesome park near them.  This was our first splash pad of the year.  We went only 3 times, hopefully that'll hold us over until June 14, when the splash pads open in Milwaukee.

Right beside the splash pad was a huge multi-colored playground that the kids loved.

Liza mastered these "steps" the first time she tried them - no assistance needed.

Liza doesn't like her apples sliced, but she loves whole apples.

After a few days with Grandpa and Grandma in Allen, we drove to Togo, I mean Harrold, TX.  I do believe the climate was about the same though.  While we were there it was near 100 degrees, dry and windy.  

We stopped by a sheep farm with our new friends to see the baby lambs.

Liza, of course, was more interested in climbing.

Our last day came very early.  Our flight was at 6:50 a.m. so we had to be up by 4 a.m. to get the van loaded up to leave Grandpa and Grandma's, unloaded and returned at the airport, us shuttled to our terminal, the bags checked, all of us through security and done with potty time. Onto our first plane we went.  We didn't get a ticket for Liza, so she sat on my lap and we all squeezed into one row of 3, which actually worked out really well.  We flew to St. Louis, got off the plane and right back on another one (no time for a potty stop).  The second flight went as well as the first flight.  Although, I don't think I'll be able to hold Liza on my lap in a few months when baby is bigger.   I'm sure we were a sight to see rolling through the Milwaukee airport after we picked up our checked bags—6 large bags, 3 little bags, 2 car seats, a stroller and 2 kids. Maybe next time we'll get a cart (although we did make it work this time)!

Flying home.

Sam was super excited to be home to play with all his toys again, some at the same time.

Liza was super excited to see Chiz again.  Chiz must have been excited too, because he let Liza pet him while he was outside (usually he gets very defensive when anyone comes near him outside).

We made it home last Saturday, cleaned up the yard, and had our Memorial Day Shindig on Monday.

It was nice and warm, so the kids got to play on the slip n' slide.

Bubble guns were a hit as well.

Many have made the comment, "I bet you're glad to be back home."  It's good to be home to a huge pile of mail to sort through and catch up on, doctor appointments every other day, cooking, cleaning, and crazy kids.  In all honesty, I think I'd rather travel around for another month or so.  I didn't have to cook or clean much, the kids were well behaved (most of the time), and we saw Daddio a lot more.  On the other hand, we have enjoyed seeing our Milwaukee friends at our Memorial Day Shindig and other fun outings this week.  And I wouldn't want to have missed our chance to find out that we are having a baby _____......